For players who like to play domestic stand-alone games, the "Legend of the Paladin Sword" series and the "Ancient Sword And Strange Tan" series can be regarded as a famous series of masterpieces, they are all based on the national style fairy as the background, staged a touching story, and built a huge and detailed fantasy world.
Unfortunately, the core teams of these two series have suffered major blows around the fourth generation. The Xianjian series has lost the leading position in the domestic single machine since the beginning of the Xianjian V, and the "Legend of the Paladin 7" that has previously set up a project has not heard much, and the ancient sword series does not know whether there is still a future to look forward to. The Contact Ancient Sword series is made by some employees of the original Immortal Sword Series, which can be said to be a secondary blow.
Why the Immortal Sword series died in four generations
In the case of the number and variety of early domestic single-player games, the advent of "Paladin Legend 1" in 1995 can be said to have brought great shock to players. Whether it is the traditional fairy background, the entanglement between Li Xiaoyao, Zhao Ling'er and Lin Yueru, the shaping and concept of the villain Baiyue Sect Leader, or the rich game skills, interesting props and the maze of the difficult people, all highlight the uniqueness and high degree of completion of this game as the first work in the series.
The TV series adapted from "The Legend of Paladin 1" is still an insurmountable existence in the Xianxia drama, which confirms the success and influence of the game from the side. Although the second generation after this did not meet people's expectations, "Paladin 3" pulled the level of the series back, and the fourth generation was a good continuation.
Under the appearance of seeming brilliance, in fact, the production team has been facing relatively large pressure. The initial production team was called the "Fanatics Team", and there were 17 people at most. Among them, Xie Chonghui is responsible for the plot and poetry, and works part-time to paint some character heads, while Yao Zhuangxian is the proposer of the plan. It is said that Zhao Ling'er is a character created by Yao Zhuangxian, and Lin Yueru is Xie Chonghui's handwriting. In 2000, the foreman Jun joined the Fanatics group.
Prior to the release of Xianjian 2, Daewoo, the production company of the Xianjian series, established Shanghai Softstar, which was run by Yao Zhuangxian, and Xie Chonghui continued to be in charge of Xianjian 2 and New Xianjian. The first turning point came in 2002, Yao Zhuangxian and Xie Chonghui had the famous "Spirit Moon Dispute" in the production of the New Immortal Sword, and they did not reach a consensus on whether to let Zhao Ling'er's soul and Lin Yueru's body merge into one.
Later, Xie Chonghui left the company, and "Immortal Sword 2" was handed over to another group to produce. "Xianjian 3" and "Xianjian 4" were completed by the foreman Jun, who was sent to Shanghai SoftStar. However, because Yao Zhuangxian returned to the head office, the freedom of Shanghai Softstar was restricted, and there were problems with development funds.
"Immortal Sword 3" was first sold 500,000 sets, earning a total of more than 60 million, but there are not many that can reach the hands of employees, and it also needs money to make games. Later, they could only continue to develop at a loss, and after successively doing the "Xianjian 3" sequel and "Xianjian 4", the Shanghai SoftStar Production Team finally could not support it and chose to disband.
On the better side, they at least completed the production of "Immortal Sword 3" to "Immortal Sword 4", which are also very classic. At the public level, the recognition of "Paladin 3" may be higher, but in the eyes of players, it is difficult to distinguish between victory and defeat.
However, "there is no immortal sword after the fourth immortal", which is a statement that many old immortal sword fans more agree with. This is not to say that the next few games are not good, but the familiar production style has changed, and the last few games will indeed be somewhat insufficient compared to the predecessors. Of course, the dissolution of the Shanghai SoftStar production team was not the end of the journey, and the foreman Jun took some of the former Shanghai Softstar employees and established Candle Dragon. And Shanghai Softstar turned to the direction of mobile games.
The success and unexpected departure of the Ancient Sword Qitan series
The core creative team of the "Ancient Sword And Strange Tan" series, since they are from Shanghai SoftStar, their works have naturally chosen the same Xian Xia content. The background of "Ancient Sword Qitan 1" is taken from the "Classic of Mountains and Seas", and the plot is also written by Shao Yun, the main writer of "Immortal Sword 4".
In this work, the characters such as the obsessive and resolute teenager Baili Tusu and the kind girl Feng Qingxue are portrayed, as well as the lively Xiangling. The setting of the villain is also very interesting, the appearance of Ouyang Shaogong gentleman, the identity of the prince Changqin's two souls and three spirits, and his final choice, all make people feel complex character.
In addition to the excellent plot, the graphics and music have also improved, and the game uses a gamebryo engine and a national style soundtrack, which makes the game have a deeper discussion about "rebirth" and "destiny" than the past Xianjian series, a more exquisite world and a soundtrack from the gold medal scorer Luo Jiyi. These elements are collected, and it is also natural to get sales of nearly 800,000. This is already comparable to the results of the original "Immortal Sword 1".
In the second generation, "Ancient Sword And Strange Tan" changed the traditional way of turn-based system and entered the semi-turn stage called real-time system, which also sold well, but it was not as good as the first generation and its reputation declined. Faced with the pressure of the stand-alone market, Candle Dragon decided to develop "Ancient Sword Ol" as a supplement while making "Ancient Sword 3", and the foreman Jun chose to leave.
"Ancient Sword Strange Tan 3" is the result of step-by-step preparation, and the cumulative sales volume has exceeded one million. By the time of this game series, the transformation has been completed, and it has officially moved towards real-time production, and the battle is more enjoyable. Not only the combat system, but also the modeling of the characters, the consistent level of the plot and some mini-games, all give this game a wealth of content. Many players see it as the first step towards 3a in domestic games, and are eagerly looking forward to the arrival of the fourth generation.
Unfortunately, there is no news waiting for the release of the fourth generation, and the ancient sword fans have first ushered in a shocking news, that is, the core creators of "Ancient Sword Qitan 3" have collectively left, including the main program Bangs, the planning of a certain tree (Shao Yun), and the art director Stomach Demon.
The reason for this is still from the sales volume, within two months of the first launch, the sales of the third generation is about 600,000, the core art sweet potato leaves, and then enters the normal discount period. Breaking the million was in July this year, and the carnival's 30th anniversary edition of the ancient sword sold only about a third of the 15,000.
Digging deeper, you will find that just as the Immortal Sword already had problems in "Immortal Sword 3", the ancient sword between the second and third generations has already shown many problems. From the second generation of the sale to the third generation of the project, the interval of about 10 months, the third generation can be said to be an innovative isolation adventure, and even the "Ancient Sword Ol" developed with the next door does not have much technical exchange, and the sales should only be the last straw.
An interesting piece of news is that shortly after their collective departure, Tencent's affiliates took a 20% stake in Candle Dragon. This means that the injection of funds has also caused some players to worry. Perhaps the ancient sword series will produce new works, or it may focus on the operation of online games. But in any case, the "Ancient Sword Strange Tan" that players are familiar with is no longer what it used to be.
Roots and the future
Speaking of the two single-player series, the root cause of the "magic curse" that has been hit hard by external factors may be that a single player can say one or two, in general, the traditional 3D single-player game does have a lot of problems. From the story to the game content to the audience, it's worth rethinking. Even Ubisoft, which shipped Assassin's Creed, is still doing something on each generation.
Of course, the domestic stand-alone machine will not stop here, but manufacturers and players need another opportunity to find a suitable position for each other.